Nighco
by TobiGB
Summary: Let's see here, I woke up in a coffin, I'm running around in some strange castle, trying to help save a girl who was locked in a cage from some shadow creatures that keeps popping up everywhere, and to top it all off I have a pair of horns sticking out of the side of my head! So not feeling the aster here.
1. Chapter 1

A**/N: **Hey there everybody and welcome to a brand new story of mine, now this one is based on an old Playstation 2 game that was then re-released for the the Ps3. The name of the game is called _'ICO' _I've played it before on an emulator both the USA version and the Japanese/European version as well, my advice go with the Japanese/European version it has more features and a better ending to it as well.

Alright that's enough talking time to get to the story.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Young Justice nor do I own ICO, they both belong to their respective owners.

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_(Gotham City Eastern Docks 11:25 PM)_

"Hurry up with those crates and be careful with them, the stuff in there is worth a fortune ." The smuggler in the truck ordered as the other five men loaded up it with last three wooden crates.

"Calm down Johnny this is the last of'em." One of the smuggler told Johnny as the last crate was placed onto the back of the truck.

"Good, now lets get out of here before the bat shows up." Johnny instructed them wanting to get out of there as soon as possible because he did not want to have an encounter with the Batman.

The others agreed with him as they all began to hop into the truck, with two joining Johnny in the front and the other three jumped into the back of the truck as it began to start up, but suddenly Johnny heard a hissing noise coming from one of the tires. He got out of the truck and saw a batarang sticking out of it, that was when he realized that he had a bat infestation on his hands.

"Shit! The Bat is here!" He yelled out to the others who suddenly got their guns out and began to open fire into the shadows knowing that's where Batman would most likely hide.

"did we get him?" One of them asked hoping that they just put an end to the cape crusader.

"You missed." A voice said from behind the smuggler which caused him to turn around in fear to see that Batman was now standing right behind him.

Before he had time to react Batman quickly snatched the gun out of the guy's hands and delivered a powerful left jab to the guy's face knocking him out cold. The guy closest to Batman was about to make Swiss cheese out the Dark Knight but suddenly a pair of birdarangs struck his hands causing him to drop his gun, then Robin dropped down from the ceiling and delivered a few well placed blows with his staff he finished the smuggler off with a roundhouse kick to the face.

The other four remaining smugglers began shooting at the dynamic duo which made both Batman and Robin run in opposite directions. Batman took out a smoke pellet and threw it onto ground concealing him from their view, but that didn't stop them from shooting at him though. Once the smoke cleared Batman wasn't there, then out of nowhere he appeared right between them and proceeded to beat the crap out of them. Robin had just gotten done with taking down one of the remaining smugglers, but unknown to both him and Batman Johnny was able to sneak into the truck and began to drive off in it flat tire be damned.

As he began speed out of there a few of the crates fell off the back of the truck which caused the top to come off of one of them causing some strange looking sword that was inside of it to fall out. Johnny was confident that he had gotten away from the Dynamic Duo until he heard a loud thumping noise on the roof of the truck, before he had time to react he saw a fist punch through the glass window and felt a hand grabbing him by his shirt and pulled him right out of the truck.

"Well that's all of them, all but one that is." Robin said as he tied up the last of the smugglers.

"Hey guys sorry I'm late, but hey I brought a little present with me." A voice said as both Batman and Robin turned around to see Nightwing carrying a now tied up Johnny.

"Great to see you made it." Robin said as he greeted the former boy wonder with a smile on his face.

"Looks like that tip I gave you guys paid off, so where do you think they got this stuff from?" Nightwing asked as he looked at some of the crates and noticed the sword.

"The contents inside of these crates came from Eastern Europe, they were smuggling them into Gotham for an underground auction and sell it to the highest bidder." Batman explained as he examined some of the items in the crates.

"I have to admit that people would pay top dollar for some of this stuff, like this sword for instance." Nightwing said as he picked up the strange sword from earlier and examined it.

The sword was massive with a round-tipped blade, and the hilt is curved and has a, relatively, long chain attached to it. The sword then started to shoot out sparks and bolts of electricity, then all of a sudden it started to glow much to Nightwing's, Batman's, and Robin's surprise. Then a voice spoke out to Nightwing in a strange language that he never heard of before, but he could make out that it was definitely female, he then saw a visions of a castle, strange shadow creatures, and a girl locked in a cage all flash right before his eyes.

"What's going on here?" Nightwing asked out of concern as he found himself unable to put the sword down.

Soon the light emitting from the sword started to get brighter and causing Nightwing, Batman, and Robin to avert their eyes. Once the light died down and much to the horror of the dynamic duo they saw that Nightwing had vanished without a trace, the only thing that was left behind was the sword.

"Nightwing!" Batman screamed out as he and Robin ran over to where Nightwing once were and stood there in shock at the former boy wonder's disappearance.

"He's gone." Robin said in both shock and sadness as both he and Batman just stared at the sword that took Nightwing away from them.

Unknown to any of them though was that now Nightwing was about to embark on an adventure unlike any other he's ever been on, hopefully he'll make it through.

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**A/N: **Well there you go guys the first chapter is now finish, just so you know this takes place sometime after season two and I'm going to stay true to the game a little bit and of course I might add a few little things to it.

So anyway I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and I hope that you will enjoy the story as well.

Read and review and I will see you guys later.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: **Hey there everyone and welcome back to the second chapter of _'Nighco' _the feedback from the first chapter was pretty nice, glad to know that you guys are taking an interest in this story of mines.

Well anyway that's enough talking and it's time to get on with the story.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything what so ever in this story, they all belong to their respective owners.

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"Oh man, my head is killing me right now; wait a minute why can't I move my arms?" Nightwing asked himself as finally woke up and tried to move his arms around only to find them bound in a wooden stock.

That wasn't the only thing he noticed though, he took a good look at his surroundings and realized that he was in a confined space that left very little room for mobility and there wasn't much light shining through the small hole either.

"Alright Dick stay whelmed, first things first I need to get out of here." Nightwing stated as he extended his pointer finger and produced a mini laser out of it.

'_Always be prepared for anything.' _He thought to himself as he remembered one of the many lessons that Batman has taught him while he cut through the wood with the laser beam and was finally able to free himself.

"Well that's one problem solved now I have to figure out a way out of this thing." Nightwing said as he peeked out of the hole and saw that whatever he was in is placed on a ledge, that gave him an idea so he began to ram it off of the ledge.

As he was doing this he felt the ground begin to shake, which caused the coffin that Nightwing was trapped in to tip over and open up freeing him in the process. While he celebrated the momentary little victory, he finally took a good look at his surroundings and took note of the room that he was currently in at the moment.

The area was humongous, it was even bigger than the ballroom at Wayne Manor with practically everything made up of stone from the floor, to the pillars, and even the stairs as well. He also noticed that it was pretty well lit with several torches hanging from the walls along with whatever little bit of sunlight that manages to shine through the windows, he had to admit the architectural design of the room was very impressive to say the least.

Then he noticed all of the coffins surrounding the area from top to bottom, but there was something different about them though. Nightwing saw that these were not just any ordinary coffins either, they appeared to be made of metal and he couldn't make heads or tails of the symbols etched on them either. Plus judging from the size of them they weren't made for someone of his height or his age and that gave him a chilling thought that these things must have been designed for young children whose lives were tragically cut short. Then something caught his eye, in the middle of the room was small boy who couldn't be no older than twelve years old laying unconscious.

"He's breathing so that's a good thing, what in the world..." Nightwing stated as got a good look at the boy and noticed that he had on a pair of brown sandals, white pants that only came down to his ankles, a long shirt that was a mixture of red and orange with a belt around his waist, blue wristbands, and he was wearing a metal helmet as well.

The thing that stood out the most though was the fact that he had horns sticking out of both sides of his head. Nightwing was at a loss of words, he didn't know how to process this but that didn't matter at the moment because right now he wanted make sure that the kid was alright. The boy let out a small groan and proceeded to open his eyes and saw Nightwing staring down at him with a look of relief on his face.

"Who are you?" The boy asked in a strange language that Nightwing has never heard of and the weird thing about that is the fact that he was able to understand the kid.

"My name is Nightwing, are you okay?" He asked the young who simply nodded his head in confirmation.

"Yes, I'm okay." The boy said as Nightwing helped him stand up.

"So do you have a name?" He asked the horned boy who nodded his head as an answer to the question.

"Ico." He answered back to the former boy wonder.

"Well it's nice to meet you Ico; so tell me how did you end up here in this place?" Nightwing asked Ico out of curiosity.

"I was brought here by the knights of my village as a sacrifice." Ico replied back gloomily much to the shock of Nightwing.

"What do you mean you were brought here as a sacrifice?" Nightwing asked the young boy out of concern.

"It's because I have horns, kids with horns are brought here so misfortune won't befall the village." Ico answered with his head down.

Nightwing couldn't believe what he just heard, he couldn't believe that those villagers were so superstitious that they would sacrifice young children just because they had horns. He disgusted by this all of those children being taken away from their family and friends only to be locked away into one of these coffins just waiting to die. The more he thought about the idea the more it pissed him off, but he saw Ico staring at him so he calmed himself down a bit to see why the young boy was looking at him so intensely.

"What's wrong Ico?" Nightwing asked the boy as he kneeled down in front of him.

"Are you a sacrifice too?" He asked the confused hero.

"No Ico I'm not a sacrifice." Nightwing answered back with a little smirk on his face.

"But you have horns just like me." Ico stated to him which caught Nightwing completely by surprise.

"Ico what are you talking about I don't have any-" Nightwing began before placing a hand to the side of his head and felt something odd.

He quickly pulled out a wing-ding and stared at his reflection and to his shock he saw a pair of horns sticking out both sides of his head.

"How did this happen to me?! Oh man I am so not feeling the aster now, if anything this is a disaster with heavy emphases on the 'dis' part." Nightwing said as he paced back and forth shaking his head in disbelief at his recent discovery.

Ico was starting to feel a little concerned for the young hero so he walked over to him and grabbed Nightwing's arm hoping that it would calm him down a bit.

"Maybe you should sit down and try to relax a bit." Ico suggested to Nightwing who just let out a sigh and did as the young boy suggested and sat down on the floor to try and figure out how all of this happened.

Now he remembered being down at the docks in Gotham helping out Bruce and Tim stop a smuggling operation, then he remembered picking up that strange sword that fell out of one of the crates. Then he saw visions of a castle and a girl, as well as hearing a voice speak out to him in a language he's never heard of before. He also remembered being surrounded in a blinding light and the next thing he knew he was waking up in a coffin with horns sticking out of his head.

"That's it! It was that sword that caused all of this to happen, that's how I got here and why I have horns as well. I also think these horns are the reason I can understand you Ico, not only that but this must also be the castle I saw in my vision." Nightwing concluded as all of the pieces started to fall into place for him.

"What are you talking about?" Ico asked him out of confusion.

"It's a long story, but right now what do you say we find a way out of here?" Nightwing suggested as he placed a hand on the boy's shoulder who simply nodded his head in agreement.

The two then began to search for a way out of the room, so they headed up the stairs that located in the center of the room and that was when they spotted a lever sticking out of the wall. Ico walked over to the lever and pulled it down, then all of a sudden they heard a door open up from under them and quickly ran back down the stairs.

Once they walked through the door they found themselves in a room that much, much smaller than the previous one they just left. The room was fairly lit and there were a few crates in the corner of it, the thing that caught their attention though was a chain hanging down from the ceiling and they also spotted three open windows right beside it.

"How good are you at climbing?" Nightwing asked as Ico only answered back with a grin and ran up to the chain got a good hold of it and began climbing with little to no problem.

Nighwing had to admit that he was impressed with the young boy's climbing skills, he kept watching as Ico began to swing from the chain and went right through one of the open windows. Not wasting any time Nightwing followed Ico's example and climbed up the chain and swung through one of the opened windows as well.

The room they were in now was a little bigger than the last one, but they did notice a few things like for example the circle in the center of the room, the two ladders on both sides of the room, and of course the weird stone carvings blocking the doorway.

"Strange." Nightwing said as he got a closer look at the stone carvings and noticed that in the center of them appeared to be children with horns, this was bringing in more questions than answers for the former boy wonder.

"Hey let's see what's up here." Ico stated to Nightwing as he climbed the ladder that lead to the staircase that was located on the top of it.

"Right behind you." Nightwing as he climbed the ladder as well and the two of them began ascend to the top of the staircase in the hope that it would lead to a way out for them.

As the two ran up the stairs they started to feel as if they went on forever, as if it would never end but as they reached the halfway point the two spotted another chain handing down from the top of a piece of the broken staircase. So they climbed it and continued onwards to the top of the stairs, but Nightwing did notice just how high they were right about now and knew if they were to fall then it would've been game over for them.

As they continued on they spotted a cage hanging right in the center of the ceiling and inside of the cage was a girl, she was just sitting in there in the cage all curled up not even noticing Nightwing or Ico.

"Who are you? What are you doing in there? Hold on we'll get you down." Ico shouted out to her as he and Nightwing both tried to find a way to free her.

"Looks like crossing over there is out of the question, so it looks like we're going have to find another way; that open window over looks like our best bet. Ico I want you to wait here for moment." Nightwing instructed the boy as climbed out of the window.

Once he stepped outside he could feel the rays of the sun shining down on him, as much as he wouldn't mind taking in the some of the structures Nightwing knew that he had to hurry. Nightwing went to the right and passed by some windows that had bars on them until he came across an open one with pieces of broken glass still in it and went right through it.

When he reentered he waved at Ico who waved back at him from the other side, then he turned around and spotted a lever at the edge. He ran over to it pulled the thing towards him and in the process it started to lower the cage down to ground.

"I'll meet you at the bottom!" Nightwing called out to Ico who nodded his head and ran down the stairs with Nightwing not far behind him.

When the two of them reached the bottom they saw that the cage was just hanging over the circle now, so Ico ran over to the other ladder and climbed up to the ledged, ran to where the cage was hanging, and jumped right on top of it. As the cage swung it caused Ico to lose his balance and fall off, but luckily Nightwing was there to catch him before he hit the ground. Due to his extra weight though it caused to the cage to fall to the ground and open up.

The girl slowly walked out of the cage and looked at the two boys in front of her, they noticed that she was wearing a white dress that came down to her ankles, she also had short dark brown hair, and he skin was so eerily pale. She seemed a bit taller than Ico but shorter than Nightwing, if he had to guess she was probably in her early teens at the most.

"_Who are you? How did you get in here?" _She asked the two of them in a strange language, neither of them could say a word as she approached them.

Before anything else could be said Nightwing noticed a shadowy figure coming out of the ground and was heading right towards the girl. Without a moment's hesitation Nighwing pulled out his escrima sticks and charged at the creature; to his surprise though the creature was easy to take down.

"Guys I think it would be best if we get out of here." Nightwing told the two of them.

"Yeah, you will be safer with us." Ico told the girl as grabbed a stick and the girl's hand and led her to the stone carvings.

To the surprise of both boys that when she touched one of them they started to light up and opened up for them, the girl ran in first with Ico right behind her.

"Things cannot get much weirder." Nightwing said to himself as ran in last unaware of just how wrong he was.

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**A/N: **Alright guys I hope that you enjoyed this chapter and I hope you liked the introduction of Ico and Yorda, next chapter we'll see what's going on with Batman and Robin.

Read and review and I will see you all later.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: **Hey there everyone and welcome back to chapter 3 of _'Nighco'_, now last chapter had Nighwing wake up in a strange castle and met the young boy named Ico. He noticed that Ico had a pair of horns on both sides of his head and not only that but he also had a pair of horns himself, then as they met Yorda and had their first encounter with one of the shadow creatures, and witnessed that Yorda has the ability to open up the stone doors they need to get out of the castle.

Now with all that out of the way I think it's time to see how those three will make it out of the castle.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything what so ever in this story, they all belong to their respective owners.

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_(Watchtower 7:38 PM)_

"So you're telling me that Nightwing just vanished in a flash of light after picking this sword?" Zatanna asked as Batman just gotten done explaining the situation to her.

"Exactly, I've spent the last nineteen hours examining the sword trying to find out it's origins in the hopes of finding a way to bring Nightwing back." Batman stated as he glared down at the sword he had laying on the table.

Ever since Nightwing vanished Batman has spent hours in the batcave just typing away on the batcomputer trying to learn everything he could about this sword, he searched through several historical documents and folklore only to come up empty handed. He took a closer look at the inscriptions on it and tried to have them translated, but sadly that was to no avail though; that left him with one other theory and that the sword is magic based.

"We haven't had much luck with it though, which is why we brought it hear hoping that either you our Doctor Fate might be able to help us out." Robin explained to the sorceress.

"Well since he's away on a mission right now it looks like I'm the next best thing." Zatanna said with a little smirk on her face as she examined the sword and it's inscriptions.

"Do you know what any of the inscriptions mean?" Batman asked her with a bit of worry in his gruff voice.

"To be honest I've never seen anything like this before; hey maybe if I perform location spell then I might be able to at least know where he was transported." She suggested to both the Dark Knight and boy wonder.

"I understand." Batman said nodding his head instructing her to proceed with the spell.

" Wohs em eht noitacol fo erehw gniwthgin saw detropsnart oot!" She chanted as her eyes began to glow and magical energy started to surround the sword and shown her where Nightwing ended up at. It took her from this word and into an entirely different universe that didn't look too different from their own planet Earth.

What she saw in her vision was a giant stone castle setting in the middle of the ocean with waves splashing up against it, it looked more like a fortress than any castle that she has seen before, and from what she could tell the location didn't seem like the kind of place for welcoming guests; mostly due to the fact that it was disconnected from the mainland. She tried to get a look at the interior of the castle but suddenly her sight was being consumed by some kind of black smoke, what ever the smoke was it didn't want Zatanna interfering with what was going on behind the castle walls.

"Stay away!" A voice warned her as the smoke used enough force to break the connection Zatanna had with the sword and sent her flying back into the wall.

"Are you alright?" Robin asked her as he and Batman helped her back to her feet.

"Yeah I'm fine, but listen that sword had transported Nightwing to different universe and not only that but he seems to be inside a castle as well." Zatanna explained as stood on her own two feet.

"Is there anything you can tell us about the castle?" Batman asked wanting to know everything that she learned.

"All I know is that it was in the middle of an ocean and... well when I tried to get a look at the inside some black smoke was blocking my view and then a voice warned me to 'stay away' and broke the connection. I don't know who or what it is that's trying to keep me from viewing the inside of the castle, but I do know that's too powerful for me to handle on my own." She stated to the Dynamic Duo.

"The fact that you were able to locate Nightwing was more helpful then you thought, all we can do now is hope that Nightwing will be safe until we can find a way to bring him back." Batman calmly assured her as both Robin and Zatanna nodded their heads, but they both knew that he was deeply worried for the former boy wonder and was just putting on a brave front.

"Don't worry Batman I won't give up until Nightwing back home where he belongs." she said with confidence in her voice.

"Thank you." He told her with Robin nodding his head in agreement with their resolve.

_(Castle)_

"Whoa." Nightwing said as he, Ico, and the girl all stood in front of an old stone bridge that was covered in mist and stretched all the way to the tower on the other side.

They all took notice of just how high they were from the water and crushing waves down below, if Nightiwing had to guess of just how high up they were then it would be a good 30-60 stories high.

That didn't matter right now though, because all that matters was getting out this place so trio moved forward to the other side of the bridge. When they got halfway part of the bridge began to collapse under the girl's feet and left dangling from edge, but luckily Ico was still holding onto her hand was able to pull her up to safety.

"Are you ok?" Ico asked as he helped her get back onto her feet.

The girl simply nodded her head assuring the two boys that she was alright that they should continue to move they reached the other end of the bridge they noticed another pair of stone carvings just the ones from the previous room, so just like last time the girl walked up to them and placed her hand onto both of the stone carvings and was able to open them up.

Once they opened up a small square panel rose up from the ground causing a metal door suddenly came slamming down in front of them. Nightwing figured that the only way to open the door was to step onto the panel and he did just that and urged both Ico and the girl to run inside with him not far behind them.

When they got inside they saw that it was pretty well lit and not as dark like the last couple of rooms they've been in, there was a few barrels lined up in the room and big crate sitting right under the steps, they also noticed that the windows were bared up as well, then Ico spotted another square panel sticking out of the ground right in front of a metal door.

"A way out!" Ico said with joy as he ran down the steps and stepped onto the panel and caused the metal door to raise up and reveal metal bars blocking their way out.

"Doesn't look like we're getting out this way, but it was a nice try though." Nightwing said placing a comforting hand on the young boy's shoulders.

They both turned away from the door and saw that the girl was staring at the big cube, that made the boys curious so Ico hopped down there and pushed the crate out of the way. Once he did that some stairs started to raise up from the floor next to the windows leading to a way out for them.

"Looks like we'll be taking the stairs." Nightwing said jokingly as he helped Ico back up and then turned his attention over to girl and saw that she was shaking with fear.

He and Ico noticed a black portal open up from the ground and out of it was three more of those shadow creatures, though two of them looked like spiders that seemed to be crawling all over the place. The bigger shadow creature ran towards the girl but Ico was able to get between them and started to beat the creature with his stick, just like the one Nightwing fought earlier this one went down with ease.

"Good job Ico, I'll take care of the spiders." Nightwing stated as easily took them both out with just one hit.

With the shadow creatures taken care of the three heroes ran up the stairs and found themselves outside on a ledge overlooking the bridge that they crossed earlier. They moved forward through an open doorway and ended up high in a room that almost as large as the one that Nightwing woke up in when he first arrived in the castle.

The room was pretty wide and from the looks of things could almost pass as a train depot, when Nightwing looked up he saw rail tracks right above them and figured that this room is connected to them. He looked across the room and spotted a lever on the other ledge and realized that was the key to opening the door.

"You two wait here while I swing over to the other side and get this door open." Nightwing instructed as he leaped over the high railing and landed on his feet, lucky for him it wasn't that high up, he signaled to Ico and the girl that he was fine and dashed passed the three archways and found himself staring at a chain just hanging down in front of him.

Not wasting another moment he climbed it and swung over to the ledge where he saw another one of those crates from before, so he pushed if off of the edge making it easier for both Ico and the girl to climb up there. Once he did that he pulled the lever for the metal door to open from where his two companions were, but as soon as he did that two more of those shadow portals opened up and out came two of those shadow creatures.

"Here we go again." Nightwing stated as he jumped down to help Ico keep the shadow creatures from taking the girl away from them.

Nightwing did notice something different about one of the creatures in that it was skinnier than the last two they went up against, but what stood out to him was the fact that it looked like it had a pair of horns on it's head. He knew that he didn't have time to dwell on this new discovery and kept on fighting it.

They did make things a little more difficult for the boys by dropping onto the ground and sliding pass them in order to dodge their attacks and then striking them from behind. While they fought the two shadow creatures a third one crept up behind the girl and grabbed her, she screamed out for Nightwing and Ico to save her but the two shadow creatures were blocking their path to prevent them from saving her.

The creature carried her to one of the dark portals that was located in the upper right corner of the room and began to drag her down into the darkness as she tried her best to pull herself out of it.

"Ico you go save her and I'll handle these two!" Nightwing ordered the boy as he nodded his head and ran pass the two shadow creatures.

One of them tried to block his way but Nightwing had thrown a wingding at it's head causing it to disperse and fade away. Ico made it to her just in time as only the top half of her body was still visible and he quickly grabbed hold of her hand and began to pull her out of the portal.

"You're safe now." Ico told her as they both sought on the ground next to the portal as Nightwing looked on with a relived look on his face as he just gotten down taking down the other shadow creature.

The moment was short lived though as the shadow creature that grabbed the girl earlier had resurfaced from the portal and was going to try and take her away again, but unfortunately for it both Nightwing and Ico was ready it and double teamed it out of existence.

"Man those things are like cockroaches, no matter how many times you squash one of them, another one will just take it's place." Nightwing stated with a hint of annoyance in his voice.

"Nightwing, have you noticed that whenever we defeat those creatures the portals they appear from tend to vanish into smoke?" Ico asked the older hero who understood what he was talking about.

"Yeah I have, if anything it means that we were able to wipe the area clean of them. I did see something odd about one of them, it had a pair of horns on it's head just like us." He replied back to the young boy.

This place giving out more questions than answers, like why was the girl locked up in a cage? Why are the shadow creatures after her? What was up with the room full of coffins? These questions were starting to make Nightwing's detective skills kick in a bit, but he knew the only way to get the answers he wanted was to get out of the castle.

"Come on guys lets get out of here." Nightwing told them as he, Ico, and the girl each hopped onto the top of the crate and then proceeded to climb onto the ledge and headed out of the door which led to the outside.

Unknown to any of them though is that one of those questions will soon be answered from a very unlikely source.

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**A/N: **Well there you go guys, chapter 3 of the story and I hope that enjoyed Zatanna showing up as well.

Now for the record I wanted to make this chapter a little longer but it was getting pretty late and so I ended it here, also I want to point out that I won't be going back to what seeing what Batman and Robin will doing for a while because we all know that they'll mostly be trying to find a way to bring Nightwing home.

I'm going to be keeping the focus on Nightwing, Ico, and Yorda to help move the story along, and for the record I'm sorry that things have been moving a little slow with the plot. I had to get some of the exposition out of the way, but things will be picking up next chapter. Also in case you're all wondering why I keep referring to Yorda as 'the girl' it's because Nightwing and Ico don't know her name yet, but that's all about to change next chapter.

Because there is still one more character left to make an appearance in this story, and that person will have the answers that Nightwing is looking for.

Well anyway read and review and I will see you guys' later next chapter.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: **Hello everyone and welcome to chapter 4 of _'Nighco' _well last chapter dealt with Batman going to Zatanna for help with trying to bring back home and speaking of the former boy wonder, he, Ico, and Yorda are still trying to get out of the castle and ran into some more shadow creatures which is starting to be more of a challenge for them.

Well now it's time for a few things to be answered like Nightwing and Ico finally learning Yorda's name, and the strange voice that told Zatanna to 'Stay away' so here we go with chapter 4 of _'Nighco'_.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything what so ever in this story, it is all the property of their respective owners.

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_(Castle)_

"I have to admit that the view this place has is pretty overwhelming." Nightwing said as he, Ico, and the girl took in the view of the castle.

The three of them stood on a ledge overlooking part of the castle, they could tell that they were so high up they weren't even able to see the ground, though the mist surrounding the castle also factored into that as well. Even with everything that's been happening to them Nightwing had to admit that the architectural stone structure was an amazement to say the leas. Nightwing looked over at the ocean for a bit and listened to it's waves while noticing the rail tracks from earlier, he figured that would help lead them to a way out of the castle.

"Well it looks like we got a train to catch." Nightwing told Ico and the girl jokingly as they all ran up the stone stairs which took them to a second level.

They saw another flight of stairs right beside a barred gate that contained nothing but crates behind it. Once they made it up those stairs the girl started to shake with fear again because right from the edge across from them a dark portal started to open up in front of them and they all knew what that meant. As Nightwing and Ico prepared themselves for the upcoming shadow creatures that was sure to attack them, the girl pointed up towards the small tower right next to them and noticed another dark portal appearing up there as well.

Each one of them produced a shadow creature but these two were unique to the ones that the three have been encountering, that was because they could both fly and that spelt trouble for them. When the two of them landed in front of Nightwing and Ico they took notice that one of them was skinny just like the one they encountered in the previous room they just left, and the other one was bigger and bulkier than any other shadow creature they've encountered plus . There was one thing Nightwing took notice of and that was the fact that they both had a pair of horns sticking out of their head.

"You take the skinny one, I'll handle the big guy over there." Nighwing suggested as the young boy simply nodded his head as both of them charged at the creatures.

To their surprise though the shadow creatures jumped and flew out of the way of the charging heroes and landed right behind them, then they attacked both Nightwing and Ico with their claws knocking them both to the ground.

"These guys seem a little smarter than the last ones." Ico stated as he stood back up holding on tightly to his stick.

"Yeah, but not by much though." Nightwing replied back as he and Ico charged at the two shadow creatures again.

This time though when the creatures jumped up into the air Nightwing and Ico did the same thing and scored a direct hit with their weapons knocking both of the creatures to the ground. They didn't stop their assault there, knowing that if giving the opportunity they would most definitely take to the sky and attempt several Aerial attacks on them, so they beat the creatures out of existence.

"Well that takes care of them." Ico said relieved at the fact that those shadow creatures were now gone.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that." Nightwing told him as two more of those shadow creatures climbed out the portals and flew right towards them.

After another finishing up the second set of shadow creatures they checked to see if either of the portals were still open and to their relief they both vanished into smoke. The girl slowly walked over to the other end of the roof with Nightwing and Ico not far behind they found the steps that led to a small ledge and right underneath that was the rail tracks Nightwing had spotted.

"look, I see something over there that we could use to travel to the other side." Ico said as he pointed towards an old trolley.

"Good eye, alright you guys wait here while I go catch us a train." Nightwing said as he climbed down the ladder and ran through the archway towards the trolley.

He examined the old trolley very carefully to see if it was still in good working condition, there was a bit of rust here and there but nothing too bad though. He hopped onto the trolley and checked the lever to see if it would work, he pulled back towards him a bit and the trolley moved in reverse. Glad that it was working he pushed the lever forward and the trolley moved to where his two companions were waiting for him.

"All aboard the castle express where today we have a special that involves kids with horns and lovely young ladies riding for free." Nightwing said jokingly as both Ico and the girl climbed down the ladder gotten onto the trolley.

Once they were on board Nightwing pushed the lever forward and off the trolley went, though it didn't take them very far due to how short the track was but it did get them to the end of the line though. As the three of them got off of the trolley they then found themselves walking high on a steep ledge on the side of the castle; as they walked the came across a gap that was small enough for them to jump across.

Ico jumped first with Nightwing right behind him, they both turned to see that the girl was still standing there unsure if she should jump or not. Nightwing extended his hand out to her in assurance that he will catch her when she jumps, she nodded her head then stood on the edge and jumped across the gap. She didn't make it all the way to the other side because she was dangling in the air with a firm grip on Nightwing's arm as he effortlessly pulled he up onto the ledge.

"Guys look down there, it's the spot we saw earlier from behind the barred door." Ico said as he pointed towards the little grassy tower from before.

"You're right, and look on the other side of that is another entranceway that could hopefully get us out of here. All we need now is a way down there, hey that's it we'll use that crane over there." Nightwing said as he pointed towards a crane with a large steel crate attached to the other end of it.

"I'll see if I can operate it and try to get us down there." Ico stated as he grabbed hold of the metal rail sticking out of the castle wall and began to move towards the crane's circular turret as both Nightwing and the girl watched hoping that he would be okay.

Once Ico made it in there he waved to both of his companions to let them know that he was alright relieving both of them, he then walked over to the lever and pulled it towards him and watched as the crane lift the crate up and swung towards Nightwing and the girl.

"Hold on to me as tight as you can alright." Nightwing instructed the girl who did as she was told and held on to the former boy wonder as he leaped onto the top of the steel crate with the girl still holding onto him.

Nightwing signaled to Ico that they were both on the crate so Ico pulled the lever again and watched as it slowly swung back towards it's original position and then lowered itself back down across from the small tower.

Nightwing jumped towards the tower with the girl still holding to him with no problem, then they both turned around and watched as Ico climbed the three wooden boards that was tacked to the wall of the castle. Once Ico made it to the top of the torret he slowly climbed onto the top of the crane itself and walked over towards the edge, then he began to slide down the chain where he stood on top of the steel crate and jumped over to where Nightwing and the girl were.

"Good job operating that thing Ico, we wouldn't have made it over here if it wasn't for you." Nightwing said as he ruffled the young boy's hair.

"Don't mention it, look another lever over there." Ico said as he walked over towards the lever and pulled it towards him.

To their surprise the bars had risen up reviling the metal door and a wooden bridge began to extend towards them.

"Well it's nice to know that we have a quicker way back this time, anyway come on guys it's time for us to keep moving." Nightwing instructed as the three of them walked through the dark entranceway that took them back into the castle.

Once they were inside they found themselves standing high on the ledge of another one of the castle's large rooms only this one was huge and multi-leveled and it had a broken bridge at its center, there wasn't much light shining through it as well, and not only that but there was also a giant chasm at the bottom of the room. The three began to head to the other side of the room and out of the doorway that had light shinning through it hoping that it would be a way out of the castle.

"Should have known that it wasn't going to be this easy." Nightwing said to himself as the three of them found themselves staring at multiple drawbridges that were all being held up by chains.

"Looks like we have no choice but to go back in there and find a way out." Ico pointed out as Nightwing agreed with him and the three of them went back inside of the room they just left.

When they were back in the room Nightwing and Ico tried to figure out a way to leave, they both knew that the only way out was most likely going to be at the bottom. They knew the chain hanging from the ledge would be quicker for them, but they also knew that the girl wasn't strong enough to climb down in her current state. While they brainstormed the girl pointed towards a chandelier hanging from a cross-beam which gave Nightwing an idea for getting out of there.

"I think we just found a way to the bottom, thanks." He told the girl as he began to climb the window ledges.

He then spotted a ladder and used that to climb on top of one of the supports that ran along the top of the room, once he made it to the center of the cross-beam he jumped onto the chandelier and despite his weight it was still hanging from the beam. He could tell that the chain wouldn't hold out much longer and with one good hit then it would break, so he took out his escrima sticks and with one good swing the chain broke causing it to drop the lighting apparatus and crash into the bridge, hit the ground, and fall into the giant chasm below.

"Man that was a close one, it was a good thing I jumped out of there just in time." Nightwing said as he stood back on the ledge with both Ico and girl checking to see if he was fine.

He assured them that he okay and noticed the chandelier knocked the podium holding the bridge off-balance a bit, all they needed to do now was figure out way to bring the whole bridge down.

"Hey I know way we could get to the bottom of the room just follow me." Ico said as he led his two companions out of the room through the way they first entered.

They were soon back outside at the small tower from before and Ico pointed towards a spiral staircase, he explained that he spotted it when he was climbing down the crane. With that they descended down the stairway and when they reached the doorway they spotted six big round objects, Nightwing knew right away that they were bombs and realized that they might be just what he needed.

So he grabbed one of the bombs and walked through the doorway with the other two right behind him, they then ended up back in the huge room with the chasm only this time they were at the bottom. Nightwing then carried the bomb over to the podium holding the bridge up and placed it down beside it, then he instructed Ico to use his stick to light the fuse with is stick. The boy nodded his head and walked over to one of the torches and placed the edge of his stick into the flame and ran over to the bomb lighting the fuse.

The three of them ran back and watched as the bomb exploded and caused the podium to fall over and made part of the bridge fall down over the chasm providing them a way across now.

Once they got back up to the top and started to walk down the bridge, but when they got halfway down some more of those flying shadow creatures started to show up in around them. Without wasting anytime they dashed towards the doorway with more of those stone statues in front of it, and to the surprise of both Nightwing and Ico as soon as the girl touched the statues lightning started to shot out of them and hit every single last one of the shadow creatures turning them into nothing but smoke.

"Wow, if only we knew this a while back, oh well lets go guys." Nightwing said as the three of them ran right through the doorway.

They soon found themselves in a open courtyard and could spot the stone statues at the lower part of the courtyard and knew that was their way out, but as soon as they took their first steps more of those shadow creatures suddenly appeared and darted towards the girl.

Nightwing and Ico fought them all off as they tried to protect her from those vile creatures, Nightwing figured that the fastest way out of this was to get to the stone statues at the bottom of the courtyard. Nightwing picked her up bridal style and started to leap down there from archway to archway with Ico not too far behind them; then once Nightwing put her down she quickly dashed towards the statues and caused lightning to shoot out at the shadow creatures.

"Well it looks like we're almost done here." Ico said with Nightwing and the girl agreeing with him.

When they walked through they saw a beautiful garden in front of them, but the thing that really caught their attention was the two humongous stone gates in front of them wide open just ready for them to run right out. Without wasting any more time Nightwing, Ico, and the girl dashed towards it with Ico holding the girl's hand; then without warning the gates began to close in front of them.

Suddenly the girl fell onto the ground without warning causing both Nightwing and Ico to stop running to see if she was all right, in doing so the stone gates had closed behind them and then suddenly a portal opened up and this time instead of a shadow creature it was a woman a very tall woman.

Her body was shaped by shadows and dark fumes, which also formed her garments, her face was also snow white along with her chest being the only things that wasn't covered in dark shadows. She towered over the young girl and began to speak to her.

"_Come back Yorda." _She spoke in the girl's langue and then she turned her attention towards the two boys where were ready to fight her.

"Who are you?" Nightwing asked ready to throw down with Ico having his back for the fight.

"So, you two are the ones aimlessly leading my Yorda around. Do you know who this girl is?" She asked the two boys as they just glared at her.

"No, but we would sure would like to know who you are though." Nightwing stated holding onto his escrima sticks; she simply chuckled at him before answering his question.

"That girl you're with is my one and only beloved daughter." She answered back which shocked the two boys.

"You're her mother? Well then tell me, what kind of mother would lock their 'beloved' daughter in a steel cage then?" Nightwing asked with a bit of anger at the woman.

"Stop wasting your time with her, she lives in a different world than two _little _boys with horns! Now, know your place and leave here." She told them before vanishing from their sight.

"Are you okay?" Ico asked Yorda who was still lying on the ground crestfallen and somewhat afraid.

"_I have angered her…" _She said as she looked at the two boys in front of her.

She saw as both of them held their hands out for her to grab and helped her up, but then they heard her mother's disembodied voice speaking out to them one last time.

"_Yorda, why can't you understand? You cannot survive in the outside world."_

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**A/N: **Well there you go guys' chapter 4 plus the introduction to the queen and also the boys know Yorda's name now, and I'm sure some of you have already guessed it and yes she was the one who told Zatanna to stay away last chapter.

Well sorry if the ending was a little rushed and next chapter we'll check back in on things in Nightwing's universe.

Read and review and I will see you guys later.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: **Hey there everyone and welcome back to chapter 5 of _'Nighco'_, now last chapter the trio met Yorda's mother and Nightwing and Ico finally learned Yorda's name as well. That means I can refer to her by name now which I know must be a relief to a lot of you who got tired of me referring to her as 'the girl', plus as I've mentioned last chapter the queen was the one blocking Zatanna attempt to reach Nightwing.

Well anyway it's time to get on with the story and to also check in on things back in Nightwing's universe.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything what so ever in this story, everything here belongs to their respective owners.

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_(Castle)_

Nightwing, Ico, and Yorda all just stood there in front of the main gates staring up at the giant stone gates that was sealed so tightly in front of them. They were all so close to freedom, so close to escaping the castle, so close to putting this whole nightmare behind them, so close and yet so far.

"I should have known that it wouldn't be this easy, then again almost nothing ever is." Nightwing said to himself as he placed his hand onto the gate and then turned to see Ico trying to them to budge.

"It's no use these things won't move an inch." The young boy said finally giving up on trying to open the gates.

"Too bad Superman isn't here right now, he would turn these gates into dust by now." Nightwing commented to young Ico who had a confused look on his face.

"Superman? Who is that?" Ico asked the former boy wonder who had a small smile on his face.

"He's literally one of the strongest people I've ever met and one of the founding members of the Justice League." Nightwing explained as he looked over at Yorda who was holding her head down with a expression on her face.

They both walked over towards her and each placed a hand on her shoulders wanting to reassure her that they're there for her.

"So your name is Yorda? It's a really nice name and it suites you." Nightwing complimented with a little smirk on his face.

"We never really had a chance to formally introduce ourselves earlier, my name is Ico and it is nice to make your acquaintance." He said with a big smile on his face as he took Yorda's hand and shook it.

"And I'm Nightwing, charmed." He said as he did a little bow similar to the one he seen Alfred do over a thousand times.

Yorda couldn't help but let out a little giggle at the boys antics and in return did a little bow of her own as both boy let out a few chuckles of their own. Pretty soon they were all having a good laugh all around, even though it was only momentary it was still a nice moment between the three of them.

"Listen Yorda everything your mother said earlier doesn't mean a thing, I promise you that the three of us are going to get out of here together." Nightwing stated with a determined look on his face.

"That's right, as long as we stick together nothing won't be able to stop us." Ico added with the same determined look as Nightwing.

Yorda nodded her head at their statement showing them that she believes in them and hopes that they will be able to escape the castle and her mother in the process.

"First things first we need to figure out a way to these gates to open up, those two orbs up there might be able to do the trick if we can activate them first." Nightwing stated as examined the giant stone gates.

While he did this Yorda walked over to one of the stone statues with torches on top of them and motioned for the boys to come over to where she was standing. They looked at it and noticed there was a switch on the ground in front of it, so Ico grabbed hold of the handle and dragged the statue towards him. Once he did that the top part started to sink down a bit much to his surprise.

"looks like these things aren't just for decoration, Ico you handle rest of them on that side and I'll take care of the ones on the right." Nightwing instructed as he and Ico began to pull the remaining seven statues onto their respective switches.

Once they finished dragging the statues the torches suddenly burst into flames and that made them wonder if it might be connected to getting the gates to open back up. They didn't ponder on it for much longer because they knew they had to keep moving if they wanted to get out of there, so they went back through the doorway they came through hoping to find a way to get the gates to open up for them.

_(Watchtower 9:37 PM, 3 days later)_

"Oh man, this is all your fault you know that?" Zatanna yelled out to the sword in front of her as she sat down for a bit of rest.

For the last three days she's been trying figure out a way to bring Nightwing back to his home universe, she knew where his location was but every time she tried to make contact with him something would always block her attempts. Batman would check in on her to see how things were going, she could tell that he was concerned for Nightwing just like everybody else.

He would tell her not to put too much pressure on herself, she thought he should take his own advice due to how much stress he's been putting himself through. Zatanna heard from Tim and Barbara he's barley been sleeping or eating, he even interrogated those smugglers several times wanting to know what country the sword originated from.

"Still working hard I see." A female voice said as Zatanna turned around to see Batgirl enter the room.

"Yeah and it's getting me nowhere, I don't know if I'll be able to keep this up any longer." Zatanna stated as she slouched down into her seat.

"Come on we know you're doing your best but you're starting to run yourself a little ragged. When was the last time you even ate something?" Batgirl asked the sorceress as she walked up towards her.

"I haven't ate since this morning, maybe a break would do me some good. If Dick was here he'd tell me to get whelmed." She said with a little smile on her face.

"He would definitely say that without a doubt, come on lets go get you something to eat. Don't worry we'll find a way to bring Dick back to us we just can't give up hope." Batgirl said with a comforting smile on her face as she placed a hand on Zatanna's shoulder.

"Yeah, I did see a castle in my vision so for all we know he's probably running around with some young maiden or princess." Zatanna joked to Batgirl as they both shared a laugh.

"He's also probably fighting off some evil king or queen and their minions in order to free the kingdom from their rule." Batgirl joked as both of them laughed.

Even though the two girls were just joking they had no idea of how close they were to the truth about what Nightwing was up to at the moment.

_(Castle)_

"Alright Ico light it up." Nightwing instructed the young boy as he lit the bomb that was placed in front of the archway that was sealed up by wooden planks.

The trio had reentered back into the courtyard from earlier and Ico had noticed the barred up archway and Nightwing saw a few bombs just like the ones from earlier, so Nightwing carried one of them over towards the archway and placed down in front of it and lit the thing.

Once the bomb went off they went through the archway and found themselves walking down a flight of steps and ended up in a graveyard. They continued on down the second flight of steps Yorda suddenly froze in place and that meant more of those shadow creatures were on the way, Nightwing and Ico both had their weapons drawn and shielded Yorda for protection from them.

Soon a dark portal began to form in left corner of the second flight of steps and a second one appeared at the top of the second flight of steps right behind them. Then out flew two bulky and skinny horned shadow creatures from each portal gently landing in front of the trio and began to run towards them, so Nightwing and Ico began to fight them off to keep them from trying to take Yorda away from them.

Every time they would take one out two more would just pop up and take it's place, then suddenly one of the skinny shadow creatures snuck up behind Yorda then proceeded to grab her and flew her back towards the portal on top of the steps. Nightwing saw this and ran up there and with swing to the head from his escrima sticks the creature ended up dropping Yorda and then vanish into smoke.

"Your okay?" Nightwing asked as he helped her up, she nodded her to indicate that she was all right.

"That's the last one!" Ico yelled out as he just gotten done beating the last bulky shadow creature.

"That's a relief for a moment there it almost felt like we were in the middle of a zombie movie or the _'Thriller' _music video." Nightwing joked while Ico and Yorda just looked at him with confused looks on their faces.

He just shrugged it and lead them down a third flight of steps and the trio saw another sealed door blocking their path, then Yorda spotted a giant cube sitting in the shade. Nightwing then noticed that there were two switches on both sides and they just like the one in that tower from earlier. He instructed Ico to drag the cube over towards the switch and watched as the cube sunk into the ground, then there was the second switch to worry about.

"Yorda could you stand over here for a moment?" Nightwing asked as she stood on top of the switch and sunk into the ground and the three of them watched as the sealed door opened up in front of them.

"The door's open, I'll go in there and see if I can find another cube for us to use." Ico stated as he ran through the doorway.

Nightwing and Yorda waited for Ico to return for a good seven minuets, then they heard a voice shouting at then and then they both looked up above the doorway and saw Ico waving at them from the ledge. They waved back at him as he then proceeded to push the cube off of the ledge and land right in front of his two comrades, afterwards he jumped down and started to push the cube onto the other switch but he then noticed another portal open up.

"Great just what we need more of them." Nightwing said in annoyance as two of the shadow creatures flew down in front of him as he charged at the both of them with this escrima sticks.

A third one tried to sneak up on Yorda and grab her but Ico was able to take him down with his stick. Once the shadow creatures were all taken care of Nightwing pushed the cube onto the switch and when the door opened back the three of them went right through it.

When they entered the room they noticed the stone statues on the other side of the room, and they saw a ladder that lead into the trench and climbed down into it. When they reached the bottom the trio reached the ledge they noticed that it was a little too tall for Ico or Yorda to climb onto but it was no problem for Nightwing though. Once he got up there he held his hand out for Ico to grab onto and pulled him up with no problem, he then signaled for Yorda to do the same thing then he noticed several dark portals opening up and that only meant one thing.

"Yorda quick grab my hand hurry!" Nightwing told her as she grabbed his hand and was quickly pulled up by him before one of the shadow creatures could grab her.

Yorda quickly ran over to the statues and placed her hand onto them and stepped back as the white lighting struck every single one of those shadow creatures. They then ran through the doorway and found themselves outside staring up at a windmill which was right next a small pool of water, as they walked over towards the windmill they suddenly heard a small growling noise. Both Nightwing and Yorda turned to see that it was coming from Ico who holding his stomach with a little bit of embarrassment.

"Sorry, I haven't eaten anything all day." Ico said with sheepish smile on his face, then they heard another growling noise this time it was coming from Nightwing.

"Looks like you're not the only one who could use a bite to eat." He said with a little chuckle and then both boys heard a faint little growl coming from a blushing Yorda.

"I guess we're all hungry, I wish we had something to eat." Ico said as he sat down in front of the pool of water with Nightwing and Yorda joining him.

Nightwing then reached into his utility belt and pulled out three energy bars, he then handed them to his comrades who just looked at them out of confusion. Nightwing couldn't help but giggle at them as he watched as they tried to figure out just what to do with the energy bars that Nightwing handed them.

"Let me show you how it's done." Nightwing said as he tore open the wrapper right in front of them and took a bite from his own energy bar showing them how delicious it is.

Following Nightwing's example Ico and Yorda did as he did and both of them had to admit that they thought the energy was in fact delicious. Ico took a few big bites out of his while Yorda only took a couple of small bites out of her own, Nightwing at his energy bar at his own pace as he watched the other two eat theirs.

"Nightwing can I ask you a question?" Ico asked as he finished up his energy bar.

"Sure ask away." Nightwing responded back to the horned boy.

"Earlier you mentioned a 'Justice League' and a person named 'Superman', are they the people from your village who brought you here?" Ico asked the former boy wonder out of curiosity, Yorda herself was even curious this group of people as well.

"Well the thing is guys they're not the ones who brought me here, and plus locking up kids with horns because of some superstitious beliefs isn't part of their MO either. They're a group of heroes that keeps the planet safe from all kinds of threats, like The Light and the Reach for example. Superman is one of the founding members of the League along with Wonder Woman, Aquaman, The Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, and of course my mentor Batman; of course there have been more members added to the roster over the years." Nightwing explained to both Ico and Yorda.

"Wow that sounds like an amazing group of people I wish they were here right now to help us." Ico said as Yorda nodded her head in agreement.

"Trust me they are pretty cool, they even have a covert op's group called 'the team' it was started by me and my two friends Kid Flash who was the sidekick to the Flash and my best friend, and Aqualad who was the sidekick of Aquaman. Man that was one crazy fourth of July when we broke into Cadmus and met Superboy, I could tell you guys stories of all of the adventures we went on; looking back we had it pretty easy back then and we just didn't know it." Nightwing said as he looked out in the distance thinking about his time on the team back when he was Robin.

"You were part of a team of heroes?" Ico asked even more amazed by what he was hearing from the former boy wonder.

Nightwing couldn't help but let out a small smile, so he started to check to see if his wrist computer worked. He had been so busy fighting shadow creatures and trying to find a way out of this castle that he never even bothered to check if still worked. When his holo-computer appeared it said no signal, but he wasn't surprised by that though so he checked an old file and brought up an old group photo of the team from back in his younger days.

"That's Kid Flash and over there is Aqualad, over here is Miss Martian and Superboy they were a couple at the time. The girl with the bow and arrows is Artemis, she goes by Tigress now and she KF were a couple until..." Nightwing trailed off as the memory of his best friend sacrificing himself saving the world started to cross his mind.

Yorda could see that Nightwing was having and unpleasant memory so she placed a comforting hand on his shoulder letting him know that it was okay. She then pointed to three more people in the photo, two of them were girls and one was a young boy wearing a red, yellow, and black outfit with and 'R' on his chest.

"That's Zatanna and Rocket they're members of the Justice League now and lets just say I have a bit of a history with them. The kid right there is me, back then I went a different name 'Robin the boy wonder' I was the first one at the time." Nightwing explained to them.

"You don't have any horns in this photo." Ico pointed out as he observed the photo more closely, that was when Nightwing began to explain just how he ended up inside of the castle.

He told them that he was from another universe and of how he showed up to help Batman and current Robin stop a group of smugglers from sneaking several artifacts into the country and how he picked up some strange sword found himself locked inside one of the coffins with a pair of horns. That was when Ico and Yorda learned that finding a way out also meant finding a way for Nightwing to get back home to his friends and family.

"Well I think that's enough rest for now I saw one of those statues on the other side over there, I'll just climb the windmill and meet you over there." Nightwing said though he said that last part as a joke.

He was able to quickly climb to the top of the windmill with ease and ran across the ledge of the castle. He descended down a few steps that was pass the horned stone statues and spotted a lever down at the bottom and he pulled it causing a bridge to come out of the wall and extended to where Ico and Yorda was stand, but it stopped a bit short in front of them but it was a good jumping distance for them.

Ico jumped first then Yorda jumped next and was able to catch onto Ico's arm who then proceeded to pull her up onto the bridge. Then the three of them climbed back up the steps and Yorda walked towards the stone statues then placed her hand on them causing them to open for the trio to walk through.

Deep in the castle the queen was just watching them in their futile efforts of trying to get free, she would continue to watch just for the amusement but at some point she would have to step in because Yorda would soon play a very important role in her plan.

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**A/N: **Well there you go guys chapter 5, and I apologize for the ending seeming a little rushed it's because it's late and I'm feeling a little tired. I hope you enjoyed the scene between Batgirl and Zatanna, I thought it would be nice to have both of Dick's love interests share a moment together.

I also hoped that you enjoyed the moments between Nightwing, Ico, and Yorda as well; they've constantly been on the move since they met and I thought that it would be nice for them to have a little bit of rest and to get to know each other better. I mean they still have a long way to go before getting out of that castle, and at this point it's safe to say they're all friends now.

As for the queen's plan for Yorda, well you'll just have read and find out, unless you've played the game and you already know what her plan is though.

Read and review and I will see you guys later.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: **Hey there everyone and welcome back to chapter 6 of _'Nighco' _so last chapter had our little trio talk a bit and learned a few things about Nightwing, also we checked back in on Zatanna how much progress she's made on bringing Nightwing back home.

Well that's enough of that now it's time to get on with the chapter and see what's in store for trio of explores.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything what so ever in this story, the characters all belong to their respective owners.

* * *

_(Castle)_

When Nightwing, Ico, and Yorda stepped out of the doorway they found themselves in a small little square with a chain dangling down in front of them and a steel gate right next to it. Nightwing walked over to the gate and tried to get to open up but sadly it wouldn't budge one bit for him, so he was about to try and pick the lock but Ico had another idea in mind.

"I'll climb this and see what I might be able to find up there to help us out." Ico suggested to Nightwing.

"Good idea Ico, we'll wait right here until you get back." Nightwing said as Ico jumped onto the chain and began to climb the chain to the top of the ledge, but once he reached the top a dark portal began to open up behind Nightwing and Yorda.

Two shadow creatures began to crawl out of the portal and two more flew down to where both Nightwing and Yorda were. Ico was about to jump down there and help out but Nightwing signaled to him that he's got everything under control down there and began to fight off all four of them on his own.

As much as Ico wanted to help his friend he knew that Nightwing could take care of both himself and Yorda so he ran pass the stone statues and down the steps and found himself in a grassy plain with a few trees here and there and in the center was a rectangular structure sticking out of the ground. He examined it and noticed that there were six square holes present, though only five of them sealed off with the exception one of the holes being left wide open for Ico to jump through.

He landed in a small tunnel and quickly turned around to see Nightwing knock the last of the shadow creatures into the gate causing it to vanish into smoke.

"That should take care of them for a while, Ico looks like you found a way to the other side." Nightwing said as he and Yorda walked up to the gate.

"Don't worry I'll see if I can find a way for you guys to enter too." Ico told him as he ran down the opposite side of the tunnel.

As Ico ran he soon found himself running into several inches of water that came up to his waist and saw that the water was coming through the other side of the gate that was located right in front of him. He began to wade through the water when he saw two switches on both sides of him, so he stood on the switch to his left and noticed that it opens the gate in front of him.

He tried to reach it but it suddenly closed before he could make it, so he tried the switch on the right and suddenly the gate in front of Nightwing and Yorda opened up for them. Nightwing grabbed Yorda's hand and led her into the tunnel to join Ico who just stepped off of the switch.

"See? I told you I would find a way for that gate to open up for you." Ico said with a little smile on his face as Nightwing ruffled his hair a bit.

"Yeah you definitely did, looks like that switch over there must be for that gate then." Nightwing said as he observed the switch for himself.

"That's right it opens up that gate right there but only for a little while though." Ico explained to the former boy wonder.

"I see, well then in that case we'll take the express route then." Nightwing said with a little smirk on his face and walked towards the square hole that didn't have any bars covering it.

He leaped up and grabbed hold of the edge and then proceeded to pull himself up with ease, he then called for both Ico and Yorda to each grab hold of his hand in order to pull them up one at a time. Once they were out of the tunnel the trio walked up the steps towards the stone statues ran by earlier, Yorda placed her hand onto the statues causing them to open up.

When they went through the doorway they soon arrived in a opened stoned area where there was a elevator that looked to be ready to take them to the top.

"Going up." Nightwing said jokingly once Ico and Yorda joined him inside of the elevator he pulled the lever which caused it to rise up to the top part of the stone pillar.

When they exited the elevator Nightwing noticed a lever sticking out of the wall, so ran towards it and pulled it down and in the distance they soon heard a chain being lowered off in the distance. Afterwards Nightwing climbed up onto a ledge and pushed a crate down for Ico and Yorda to use in order to help them get up there as well, but before they could another dark portal started to open up and two shadow creatures emerged from it.

"Don't these guys ever give up?" Nightwing asked as he pulled out his escrima sticks and charged towards the bigger shadow creature while Ico took care smaller shadow creature that tried to grab Yorda.

Once the shadow creatures were dealt with Ico and Yorda joined Nightwing on top of the ledge it was then that they noticed a very large gap that stood between them and the stone statues on the other side of the gap. Another thing that they noticed was the wooden board in front of them, and Nightwing spotted a lever high on top of one of the ledges that looked like it could be connected to the board; he also noticed that there was a chain already lowered down and realized that it must've happened when he pulled that lever from earlier.

"You two wait here I'll be back." Nightwing instructed as he began to run towards the wall and climb onto one of the ledges.

He slowly and carefully made his way towards the other side of the gap and waved to Ico and Yorda that he was alright, he then walked over towards the wooden plank where the chain was lowered from and proceeded to climb down it.

Unfortunately for him though the chain didn't go all the way towards the ground like he had hoped it would, even though it left him in midair he did notice an opened window just right across from him. So he began to swing back and forth in order to gain enough forward momentum that would help him reach the window, luckily for him he was able to land perfectly through the open window.

He then looked up and saw that both Ico and Yorda was staring down at him, he signaled to them that he was fine and that everything was alright. Then a dark portal began to open up behind him and two shadow creatures crawled out of it, letting out an annoyed grunt Nightwing charged at the two creatures putting them down easy.

"Man this is starting to get too easy for me, now time to figure out a way out of here hmm I think those might be able to help me." He said to himself as took notice of two crates just setting in the window.

He pushed both of them out and then jumped out of one of the windows himself, when he did that he saw that he was right back in the grassy plain that he was in earlier. Not wanting to waste any time he dragged one of the crates towards the other end of the plain and placed it right in front of a ledge that was too high for even him to climb on his own. Once he placed the crate there and was able to climb onto the ledge he ran over to the other side where he saw another chain just dangling down in front of him, so he grabbed hold of it and began to climb to the very top of it.

Once he made it to the top he began to run up a small flight of stairs and through a doorway that brought him right back to the stone pillar from where he left Ico and Yorda, he noticed a ladder and began to climb it and found himself on a higher ledge from where he could see his two companions. Then he ran towards the dangling chain and used that to swing towards the switch, before he pulled it Nightwing yelled at Ico and Yorda to stand on the board as he pulled the switch which brought them safely to the other side.

Once they were safely on the other side a dark portal opened up and five shadow creatures emerged from it. Nightwing swiftly jumped onto the chain and quickly slid down the chain and onto one of the lower edges, then he jumped off of it and landed right next to Ico.

"Yorda you head towards the statues while we hold these guys off." Nightwing instructed as Yorda ran towards the statues.

One of the shadow creatures was able to cut her off but Ico was able to knock it out of her way so she could pass through. Once she reached the statues and placed a hand on them lightning began to strike every last one of the shadow creatures, with those guys taken care Nightwing, Ico, and Yorda all ran through the doorway and found themselves in a somewhat familiar spot.

"We're on the upper part of the front gate." Ico pointed out to his companions who agreed with his statement.

"I see, looks like these bridges might be useful to us later, if only we can manage to bring them down. Well anyway we should keep moving…"

"_Nightwing!" _A gruff and yet familiar voice called out to Nightwing inside of his head which caught him by complete surprise.

Nightwing knew who that voice belonged to; it was a voice he hasn't heard since he arrived in this castle. He didn't know if this was real or not, but it was without a doubt real and he just couldn't believe it that it really is _him _talking to Nightwing right now. Both Ico and Yorda just stared at him in concern as they looked at the shocked expression on his face; Ico began to approach him to see if anything is wrong with him.

"Nightwing are you alright?" Ico asked while Nightwing didn't turn to even look at either him or Yorda as he just looked up into the sky.

"I don't believe it, Batman?"

* * *

**A/N: **Well there you go guys' chapter 6, I hope that you enjoyed this chapter and I really hope that you enjoyed the ending to this story.

Now I know that you guys are wondering how is Batman able to connect with Nightwing? Well that will be explained in the next chapter.

Also I figured that I would maybe skip a few puzzles since most of them involve height anyway, like there are some spots that are too high for Ico to climb onto on his own anyway. This by the way wouldn't be a problem for Nightwing though since he is taller than both Ico and Yorda.

Well anyway read and review and I will see you guys all later.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: **Hey there everyone and welcome back to a brand new chapter of _'Nighco' _it's been a while since I've updated this story, I've been so busy with my other stories I haven't been able to find time to work on this one.

Well I'm a bit disappointed that I didn't get any responses from my last chapter and yeah I know that there isn't a lot of action in this story but the game it's based on is a puzzle game so that leaves very little room for that. Anyway I hope that people gain interest in this story again, and with my little rant out of the way it's time to get on with the story.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything what so ever in this story, everything here all belong to their respective owners.

* * *

_(Watchtower one hour earlier)_

"I can't believe that it's been over a week now and I'm still no closer to brining Dick back home." Zatanna said with disappointment as she placed her head into her hands and fell to her knees in front of the sword.

"Sounds like someone needs to get traught." A voice said catching Zatanna by surprise, she quickly turned around and saw Robin standing behind her.

"Hey Tim, I didn't know you were there." Zatanna said looking at the boy wonder.

"I just came to see how you were doing, Babs told me that you've been exhausting yourself trying to bring Dick back." Robin said as he approached her.

"You have no idea, every time I try to get an interior view of the castle and make contact with Dick something or more accurately _someone _keeps kicking me out." She explained.

"What about the exterior?" Robin asked.

"Whatever's keeping me out isn't that strong outside of the castle like it is on the inside, but it's still able to prevent me from bringing Dick home." Zatanna explained to the boy wonder who was taking in everything she just said.

"If it's not that strong on the outside then it just might be possible for us to at least try and make contact with him." Robin said as an idea began to form inside of his mind.

"Are you suggesting what I think you're suggesting what I think you're suggesting?" Zatanna asked as grin started to form on Robin's face.

"Well then in that case I won't have to explain it to you, I'll be right back." He said as ran out of the room.

_(Five Minuets later)_

A short time later Robin returned with Batman, Martian Manhunter, and Miss Martian; he explained to them that if the magic that's keeping Zataana out is weak on the outside but still strong enough to prevent her from bringing Nightwing home, then there may be a chance for them to at least make psychic contact with him provided that he's not inside the castle.

"What you are asking will require a great deal of focus and energy." Martian Manhunter stated to Robin.

"I know it's asking a lot..."

"I said that it will require a great deal of focus and energy, I did not say that we would not try." Martian Manhunter clarified as he placed a hand on Robin's shoulder.

"We want to bring Nightwing back as much you do, which is why we're willing to help out anyway we can." Miss Martian said standing next to her uncle.

"This could be our only way of reaching Nightwing; what do we need to do?" Batman asked as he approached Zatanna.

"We need to join hands and form a circle around the sword, that way the magic energy can flow through all of you, it should help enhance your psychic powers a bit. Once we've done that it'll be up to Martian Manhunter and Miss Martian to make psychic contact with Nightwing, provided he's outside of the castle of course." She explained to everyone.

"Understood." Batman said as they all joined hands and Zatanna began her chant once again only this time she wasn't the only one viewing the castle.

"So this is where Nightwing is." Robin said in awe of the castle.

"In a castle this big he could be anywhere, locating him could be bit hard." Miss Martian pointed out to the others.

"We should start on the last location he was spotted at." Batman ordered as Zatanna showed them the windmill.

The view took them through the eastside of the castle where they saw some of the locations that Nightwing, Ico, and Yorda recently passed through, when they reached the spot leading towards the East Arena with three figures soon exiting the castle.

"It's Nightwing and it looks like he's not alone." Robin pointed out to the others.

"M'gann prepare to establish a psychic link." Martian Manhunter instructed his niece who nodded her head.

Soon both of their eyes began to glow as they formed a psychic link with everyone in the circle, then once that was done they turned their attention towards Nightwing. Wither or not that the plan would work is a long shot but it was the only one the had and they needed to take.

"Let's hope this works." Robin said as he prayed that they'll be able to reach Nightwing.

"_Nightwing!" _Batman screamed out through the psychic link.

_(Castle)_

"Batman?" Nightwing said stopping in his tracks as he heard his mentor's voice calling out to him in his head.

Ico and Yorda watched with concern when then they saw Nightwing just standing there not making a single sound or movement.

"_Nightwing it's really us." _Robin said through the psychic link.

"_But how are you guys able to talk to me?" _Nightwing mentally asked them.

"_Through the combined efforts of Zatanna, Martian Manhunter, and Miss Martian." _Batman answered.

"_It was my idea by the way." _Robin added.

"_Nightwing it's good to see that you are well." _Martian Manhunter said kindly to the former boy wonder.

"_We've all been really worried about you and we're glad that you're okay." _Miss Martian said with a bit of relief in her voice.

"_You have no idea how long I've been busting my butt trying to bring you back home." _Zatanna told him which made Nightwing smirk at the comment.

"_I know you've been working real hard on that Zee, and don't worry guys the three of us managed to make this far in one piece." _Nightwing said referring to himself, Ico, and Yorda.

"_Looks like you picked up some new friends there." _Robin said noticing Ico and Yorda.

"_Yeah Ico and Yorda, I met them when I arrived here and it's nice to have some company when you're trying escape the evil dark castle." _Nightwing said jokingly.

"_Nightwing can you tell us if there is anything you know about the castle?" _Batman asked his former sidekick.

"_Well for starters this place looks like it was built by Professor Layton, anyway it seems to be a place of sacrifice for children born with horns due to some superstitious belief that they'll bring misfortune." _Nightwing explained to the others.

"_That sounds terrible." _Miss Martian said at the thought of small children being sacrificed like that.

"_Speaking of horns you seem to have a pair yourself." _Zatanna said taking a good look at Nightwing's head.

"_Yeah I got these when I got here, as to how I got them is still a mystery to me. Anyway when I got here I was stuck inside of some kind coffin, and when I freed myself that was when I met Ico. We found Yorda caged up and once we freed her we were attacked by some strange shadow creatures that tried to take Yorda with them, we've been running into those guys all over the place. Then there's the queen she's Yorda's mother, and she seems to be the one controlling them plus for whatever reason she doesn't want Yorda to leave this castle." _Nightwing explained them.

"_Then she must be the one that keeps blocking me from bringing you home." _Zatanna stated to the others.

"_I am sorry to interrupt but I do not think that we can keep the psychic link up much longer." _Martian Manhunter said to the others as he and Miss Martian were both starting look tired.

"_Understood, Nightwing try and escape the castle anyway you can so that Zatanna will be able to bring you home." _Batman informed the former boy wonder.

"_Way ahead of you Batman." _Nightwing replied back to the dark knight.

"_Be careful Dick." _Batman said to Nightwing before the link finally broke.

"Nightwing are you alright?" Ico asked as he approached Nightwing with a concerned look on his face.

Nightwing looked at Ico and then to Yorda let out a small smile before patting the young boy on his head.

"I'm fine Ico, a little whelmed but I'm fine." He told them with that smile still on his face.

"Then why did you freeze up like that?" Ico asked.

"It was because I was having a psychic conversation with my friends and family back home; do you remember when I told you guys about The Team and the Justice League?" Nightwing asked him.

"Yes, you told us that some of them have special powers that they use to help people."Ico replied back.

"They just contacted me through the psychic link and told me that they've been hard at work trying to bring me back home to my universe, but somehow the queen is preventing that from happening." Nightwing said a little dejectedly.

Ico and Yorda could see that Nightwing was looking a bit down after his talk with his loved ones, Ico then placed a comforting hand on Nightwing's right arm and surprisingly Yorda placed a comforting hand on his left shoulder.

"Nightwing we're going get out of this castle together and make sure that you get home to your family and friends." Ico said with a confident look on his face while Yorda nodded her head in agreement.

"You're right, I should get whelmed, they're trying to get me back and I should do my part in getting out of this place." Nightwing said with his spirits lifted again.

With that the three of them then headed towards the East Arena, Nightwing did stop for a moment and saw that they right above the main gate, he also took notice of the giant orbs above the gates. He then figured that the giant orbs are connected to the towers in the East and West Arenas

"I'm guessing whatever's over there could help us get those gates open, lets go guys." Nightwing said as the three of them ran across the long archway and stood in front of the East tower.

Yorda walked up the steps and towards and placed her hand on the stone statues in order to open them up. Ico made sure to point out the circular carving above the doorway, which Nightwing took as a clue.

When they got inside they saw a metal gate in front of them and a small ladder to the left of them, so once they climbed the ladder and made it to the top a dark circle started to form on the floor and out of it came a big shadow creature.

"Funny, I was just telling my friends about you guys." Nightwing said to the creature as he and Ico charged at the creature with their weapons and made quick work of it.

Once the creature was vanquished the two boys turned to Yorda who was standing in front of giant circle carved into the wall just like the one they saw outside.

"Looks like this carvings aren't just for decoration, they must be some kind of window of some sorts." Nightwing said as a realization started to kick in.

"I think we have to open them up if we want to get anywhere." Ico said with Nightwing agreeing with him.

They both turned to Yorda and saw that she was pointing at a door that lead to the next room, the three of them went through the door and saw a ladder leading down to a lower part of the room. When they climbed down the ladder there was a tall stone circular structure sticking out of the ground; Ico was the first one to approach it and climbed onto the top of it.

He took notice of patterns on it and called Yorda over to him and help her up, once she was on top the structure began to glow started to sink into the ground. Once it did that the ground started to light up and a set of steps rose up out of the floor that lead to the giant circle between the two torches in front of them.

It didn't come without it's drawbacks though, because as soon as that happened several dark circles started to form in front of them and behind them.

"Ico I want you and Yorda to go up those steps and see if you can get that thing to open up, I'll hold these guys back." Nightwing ordered as Ico simply nodded his head and grabbed Yorda's hand and ran up the steps.

Nightwing began to fight off the shadow creatures as Ico and Yorda ran up the steps, when arrived at the top Ico noticed a lever and proceeded to pull it. Then two flame holders appeared in the wall, that was when Ico had an idea; he took his stick and put it into one of lit torches then lit both of the holders.

Soon the structure began to open up and it led to the outside much to their relief, they signaled for Nightwing, who had just taken care of the last shadow creature, followed them through the now opened hole in the wall.

When they got outside they saw what appeared to Nightwing was an old reflector bolted onto a metal plate.

"There are a pair of handles back here." Ico told Nightwing who checked it out for himself.

"Yeah you're right, let see something." Nightwing said as he grabbed one of the handles and pushed it counterclockwise.

When he finished he had it facing the entrance way of the castle and that was when it hit him, if they could open up the other two then maybe it could affect the orb.

"Guys what do you say we open up some light in this dark and dreary place." Nightwing said to his two companions with a grin on his face.

"I'm up for it if you are." Ico said with a smirk and the two of then looked at Yorda who had a small smile on her face and with that they were all in agreement.

"Alright then time to let it shine." Nightwing joked as the three of them headed back towards the tower.

* * *

**A/N: **Hey guys I hope that you enjoyed the chapter, not going to lie I kind of hate how I ended the last chapter, I kind of wrote myself into a corner there. Anyway I hope you liked my explanation of how they were able to get into contact with Nightwing, and plus I brought Tim back, haven't seen him since the first chapter.

For the record I now know how the people behind the _'Batman: The Dark Knight Returns' _and _'Batman The Killing Joke' _films feels, having to add extra martial in order to stretch something out. Believe me when going with a game with little to no dialogue and just straightforwardness can be a little challenging when you have to come up with stuff on the spot.

By the be sure to watch those films they are worth it, and the killing joke is something that will be well worth the money.

Well read and review and I will see you all in the next chapter.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: **Hey there everyone and welcome back to a brand-new chapter of _'Nighco' _now I know that I haven't been on this story in the past few months but it's mostly because I've been so busy with my other story_ 'The Café' _and all the recent news that I kind of forgot about it for a while. Then there's the fact that I had to get some walkthrough videos to help me out with the locations for the castle, and the fact that I've been getting lazy lately with this story; anyway, though I want all of you to know that I _will _finish this story.

On another note _'Young Justice' _is back for a third season!

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything what so ever in this story, everything and everyone all belong to their respective owners.

* * *

"Well it's clear what we have to do next." Nightwing stated to both Ico and Yorda as they stared at the giant closed in circle that was carved into the wall.

"We need to figure out a way to get this to open up for us." Ico responded back to him.

"That's right but we need to figure out way to do that though." Nightwing said with his hand under his chin as he tries to come up with a plan for this obstacle.

"Um..." Yorda said quietly but was still able to get the boys attention as they both turned towards her direction wanting to hear what she might have to say on the situation.

"What is it Yorda?" Ico asked her.

She didn't say anything but instead gestured for them to follow her, the trio climbed back outside through the opening from earlier and Yorda pointed towards a ladder she spotted on the left side of the entrance when they were heading back inside.

"I can't believe that we missed that, good job Yorda." Nightwing said as he complimented the young girl with Ico nodding his in agreement.

They climbed up the ladder with Nightwing bringing up the front, Ico in the middle, and Yorda, for obvious reasons, was bringing up the rear. They walked through the doorway they were right back in the same room again only this time they were standing on the left ledge that overlooked the steps that lead outside.

"Hey look over there." Ico instructed as he pointed towards a lever at the end of the ledge with a lit torch besides it and ran towards it with Nightwing and Yorda right behind him.

Without hesitation, he pulled the lever and the trio noticed that there were two torch spheres suddenly appeared right under the circle wall.

"Just like last time." Nightwing pointed out to them.

So Ico placed his stick into the flame and lit it up, he then leaped from the ledge and landed on the floor, then ran towards to the spheres and lit them both up.

Just like before the carved circle in the wall began to open up in front of them, but as it did that they heard loud *Clinking* noise coming from the other side of the hole.

Grabbing Yorda, Nightwing leaped down to where Ico was standing and the three of them climbed through the whole in the wall and found themselves back in the room they first entered.

"Look." Ico said pointing towards a sword that was just laying down in the middle of the floor, so he rushed over towards it and picked it up.

"Nice sword, I figured it was time that you upgraded from your stick." Nightwing said playfully to the young boy who smiled back at him.

As soon as Ico picked up the sword a metal gate suddenly risen out of the floor completely blocking them from not only the entrance of the room, but also from further exploration of the room. It wasn't completely hopeless though since they could still exit the room through the hole they came through, it was clear to them that if they wanted to make some forward progress then they would have to get rid of this cage around them.

"Ico feel like taking your new sword out for a test drive?" Nightwing asked as he pointed towards the two gears on both sides of the hole that some rope attached to them.

Not wasting any time Ico climbed onto the gear on the right and cut the rope with his sword, then he ran over to one on the left and cut the rope over there. Once both pieces of rope were cut the cage quickly sunk back into the floor much to their satisfaction.

"Now that we took care of that we need to figure out what our next move should be." Nightwing pondered as he and Ico both got into a thinking pose.

Yorda then wondered over to a door on the left side of the room with Nightwing and Ico right behind her; they tried to get to open but it wouldn't budge, not a single inch. So, they took a few steps back from the door and saw sticking out of the stone block over the door was some rope connected to a gear atop a flight of stairs.

Ico was about to run up them and cut the rope but Nightwing threw one of his wingdings at the rope cutting it in half and thus opening the door for them.

"Thought I'd save you a trip." He said with a smirk as the three of them ventured into the next room.

When they entered the room, they stood in front of what appeared to be a water slide, or to be more accurate a diagonal slope that had water rushing down it like a river, which means running directly up there was out of the question. Up above the slope was a lever sitting on top of a balcony overlooking them from behind a metal rail, they concluded that the lever controlled the flow of the water. Ico pointed over to some ledges that were sticking out of the wall and suggested that they could use those to reach the top of the slope.

"I have a faster way for getting up there." Nightwing said as he pulled up his grappling gun and aimed it right at the balcony rail.

He fired the gun off and watched as it attached itself to rail, then he procced to propel himself upwards and landed right beside the lever. He placed the grappling gun back into this utility-belt then he pulled the lever which then stopped the water from flowing, he signaled for Ico and Yorda to come on up the slope now.

"We'll meet you up there." Ico told him as he grabbed Yorda's hand and ran up the slope with her.

Nightwing noticed a door to his right and pressure switch sticking out of the floor in front of him, so he stepped on the switch causing the door to open for him. When he went through the door he found himself on a higher ledge above the room with the opened circle that led outside to the reflector, he looked down and saw Ico cutting two pieces of rope that was holding up half of a bridge.

Nightwing then noticed the other half of the bridge being held up by two pieces of rope just like the other one, so he took out a wingding and used it to slice the ropes lowering the other half and surprising both Ico and Yorda in the processing.

"Lookout below guys!" Nightwing shouted as he leaped over the rail and landed in front of the duo.

"Thanks for getting rid of the water for us and for taking care of the other half of the bridge." Ico said to the former boy wonder.

"No problem." Nightwing said ruffling Ico head a bit.

Once the trio crossed the bridge they found themselves overlooking the entrance room again from atop of the balcony, Nightwing noticed a lever on the other side of the room right behind a rail and right in front of that was another one of those stone idol doors right in front of the ledge.

Unfortunately for them there was no way to cross over to the other side; Nightwing was about to take out his grappling gun and use it to get them over there but Yorda was already walking towards the ledge and to their surprise a bridge suddenly materialized out of nowhere right in front of them.

Once the boys were over their initial shock they followed Yorda to the other end of the bridge where she then proceeded to place her hand onto the idol which opened for the trio.

"Once pull this lever that should just about wrap things up here." Nightwing stated as he pulled the lever.

When that happened, they looked down and under the carved wall circle the two spheres under it flipped over ready for the flames to be put into them. Ico pointed over to a lift that was right next to the lever, so they entered it and rode it all the way back down to the bottom. Not wasting any time, they lit the spheres and just like the other two the circle opened for them, but Nightwing couldn't shake the feeling that something amazing was about to happen.

The reflector suddenly began to collect sunlight and convert it into energy and fired it off right through the newly opened holes. Without hesitation Nightwing grabbed both Ico and Yorda then jumped right out of the way as the light energy sped right pass them and hit the orb on the right-side of the gate.

The orb started to spin and glow with electricity and then a stream of lightning began to strike the right gate causing it glow as well, then off in the distance the sound of door opened as well.

"That was one heck of a light show." Nightwing commented as they got up from off the ground.

"Yeah, but look we got one of the orbs working so that means that we're already halfway done." Ico said to Nightwing.

Yorda gave a small nod in agreement as they walked out of the East Tower and found themselves standing at the archway once again. The trio began to run across it like they did earlier, but just like last time they encountered the shadow creatures once again when they got halfway across.

"Long time no see guys." Nightwing said as he got his escrima-sticks out and Ico had his sword raised.

The duo made short work of them and continued across the archway, they were in front of the door that lead back to the inside of the castle. Yorda pointed towards the top of the ladder to show the boys that a door was open for them to enter, with that the trio climbed it all the way to very top and they were standing on a balcony high above the courtyard.

Nightwing saw a sword sticking out of the ground and pulled it out, he examined it and noticed that it was quite like the one Ico has. He then saw a lever and pulled it, suddenly they saw one of the bridges lowered down for them.

"Like you said Ico we're already halfway done here, now all we need do now is to get that other orb running and we'll be able to leave this castle of nightmares once and for all." Nightwing stated to both Ico and Yorda who nodded their heads in agreement with him.

As they exit the balcony through the door they came from, they were unaware that they were being watched by nonother than the queen who was watching them with slight amusement in their futile attempts of trying to escape her castle.

"Try as you might my dear daughter, but you, nor your little friends will never be able to leave this castle." She said to herself.

* * *

**A/N:** There you go guys chapter 8 done and finish, sorry for the long wait with this story it was mostly due to laziness and procrastination on my part. Well anyway I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter and like Ico said we are now at the halfway point of the story so things will soon be coming to a head.

Well anyway be on the lookout for the next chapter, along with season three of 'Young Justice', and of course 'Teen Titans: The Judas Contract' film that's coming out next month.

With that being said, read and review and I will see you guys later.


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